YAMAHA R-N303BL Stereo Receiver with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth & Phono

While this system won't impress the crowd that spends ten grand on a phono cartridge, and its 100 Watts of output power won't rattle your neighbors doors, I can say this is a very solid, good quality system for the price, and Yamaha has always had a reputation for the high quality of its "Natural Sound" line of audio gear.If you have a decent, efficient set of speakers, this unit is enough to fill your living room, den, and maybe even your backyard if it isn't too huge, with plenty of music power to please most reasonable people. If you're looking for bass you can feel in your chest, then you'll have to bust out a few more hundreds and go for a much bigger and heavier system, from Yamaha or someone else.While I wouldn't complain about one more line level analog input, this receiver has plenty: Digital: You get an optical and coax input, selectable separately, so you can have one device with optical, and another with coax, and those are separate from the analog inputs. So, the CD player can come in through optical, freeing up the CD input RCA jacks for, as an example, your TV. You get three analog line inputs: CD, Line 1, and Line 2. Line 2 is set up for a tape deck (or other analog recording / playback device). If you've kept your vintage tape deck or get a new one, there are inputs and outputs there. Plus, of course, a dedicated Phono input with built-in preamp for magnetic cartridges. (Read the manual about the Phono input.) That's not to mention the radio, Bluetooth, Internet (a multitude of services plus Net Radio), local network (Called "Server"), and AirPlay if you live in the Apple universe. (I wish it also had Android Auto.)Here's a cool feature, especially to me, who was often afraid of switching to FM after playing records: Every input has a "trim" function, where you can adjust the level up or down so all your inputs match. So, you avoid turning it up for the turntable, and being blasted out of your chair when you switch to the tuner.One fault I would give it is with the FM tuner, which in most stereos today is pretty much an afterthought anyway, except for those of us who still like the immediacy of real over-the-air radio. The first thing I noticed is on weak stations, if you're in stereo mode, it just goes on mute and (a) will not switch to mono, or (b) won't let you hear whatever quality signal it's getting (maybe some hiss is acceptable). However, on the station I was trying to hear, if I manually switched the tuner to mono mode, the station came in clear. Most receivers do that automatically, because it's a safe assumption that those selecting stereo would agree that clear mono reception is better than silence, but the Yammy makes you manually change the mode, and of course you have to remember to change back to stereo when switching to stronger stations.The FM tuner does not pick up HD channels, and the US version does not pick up the RDS info that should tell you what song is playing. The workaround for the non-HD problem is to pick up the feed on line with the Net Radio feature. In Net Radio, it will (usually) display the song and artist that's playing, as long as the station is paying attention and keeps it updated. (Looking at you, KCRW!)It would be nice if the music info on the display would scroll so I can see all of the long titles.Did I mention it has a phono input? With the resurgence of vinyl, this is great news to those of us who never really retired our turntables. The built-in preamp sounds as good as anything in this price range. If you've gotten used to a special phono preamp, or if you're using MC cartridges, then keep your preamp and use one of the line inputs.If you have a NAS or PC acting as a music server, getting that working is pretty painless if you have a phone that can run Musiccast software. I would like it to also have a web interface so I can use my Linux or Windows machines to control the receiver as well.Speaking of Musiccast, if you have a large music library like I do, trying to find a song is extremely difficult, as there is no search function. This is a feature people on forums (fora) have been asking for, for a few years, and it still does not exist in the latest version, at least for Android. If I decide to play DJ and play from my music library, I'd much rather play directly from the NAS, than to pull from the NAS with a device that can search, and then go through Bluetooth to the receiver.About network connectivity, I highly recommend using a wired connection to your network. For some reason, this receiver's WiFi only supports the old 2.4GHz channels and not the faster 5GHz ones, and the older WiFi is problematic in many areas, especially if you're in a condo or apartment building. I used a wired connection and a modest 30Mbit Internet service, and Net radio (Internet) works fine, and of course my local network (Server input) works great. Audio really doesn't require much bandwidth, but of course, if someone else is streaming HD movies, that can affect your music streaming.Bluetooth sounds amazing for what it is (streaming compressed bits over the air will never be as good as a clean analog connection to a good turntable and clean vinyl). If you notice a delay over Bluetooth, it's probably the source. I have a few laptops and other Bluetooth devices and can confirm the worst of them is several seconds lagging behind YouTube videos, and the best of them are spot on. While it does take time to digitize, transmit, receive, decode, and convert back to analog, the best transmitters (including a very cheap transmitter / receiver I bought from Amazon years ago) have undetectable delay.If you experience annoying delays from your computer, it's time to start messing with drivers, settings, and/or BT adapters, because that's probably where the problem is.By the way, this receiver does not have a switched outlet, so if you have other devices you want to come on when you turn on the receiver (turntables, custom preamps, etc.), then I recommend you get the APC P8GT 8 Outlets (search here on Amazon). I can confirm that power strip works as intended with the R-N303 as "Master". (Make sure you plug the receiver into the correct outlet.)That's just an overview of the things I've tested so far. There are cheaper receivers out there that probably sound as good, from Yamaha and other respected brands, but none that I saw had the versatility, sources, and other features as this one for the money.

I want to make two main points:*The main way to interact with this receiver is through the MusicCast app – which is sensational.*Accessing iTunes library and playlistsMusicCastI want to emphasize that the best and easiest way to control this receiver is via the free, non-subscription MusicCast app on your phone. Download it. Install it. You will love it.I bring this up because the description of MusicCast on the Amazon product page presented MusicCast parenthetically as an interesting, non-essential side option. Having had no experience with MusicCast, I had no context, and I suspected it was just another subscription service – that I didn’t want to pay for. Turns out it’s awesome. Get it. Use it.Despite that Yamaha has made other apps available in the Apple Store and Play Store for other receivers -- for this receiver, use the MusicCast app.Finally, the manual that comes with the receiver has a single line in it that mentions the MusicCast app. The rest is devoted to manually controlling the receiver with its on board switches and dials. Forget about those, use the MusicCast app.In my house, two of us have the app loaded on our phones. So, both of us can control the receiver independently.The MusicCast app gives you access to all of the different net channels this receiver is capable of connecting to. This includes many of the different streaming services. I can access hundreds of net radio stations from all over the world. Just search with the app. Find one you like, save it as a net radio favorite. Very nice and easy. I like a jazz station from Scotland. I am super excited to have instant access to KROQ Roq of the 80’s (KROQ HD2) station that is faithfully reprising the station’s 80’s alternative rock playlists.I also use the app to get access to my iTunes music library. I’m going to talk about that next…Accessing iTunes library and playlistsIt was finally time to upgrade my 38-year-old Kenwood KR-65 trusty receiver. I had been playing my iTunes library through this receiver by hooking up either an iPod or a laptop to the AUX input. Using the laptop, I could access my live iTunes library (stored on my desktop computer) through my home network by selecting it in iTunes. The problem with any of these methods is that in order to listen to music, I had to turn on my desktop and my laptop, and load iTunes onto both machines. Time-consuming waiting for the computers to boot and settle down. And the digital-to-audio-conversion (DAC) was done in the ipod or the laptop – not high quality. I needed to have a simpler, speedier, and higher fidelity setup. But I still wanted to have access to my iTunes library. And purchasing a $1000-$2000 Apple iPad or Macbook just to play music was NOT the solution I was going to consider.Here’s how I did it.I bought a 128GB flash drive from Amazon. I plugged that flash drive into a USB port on my wireless router. Then, using my router’s admin app, I configured the flash drive as a Media Server (DNLA). In Windows 10, I configured the flash drive as a network drive. Next, I created the following folders on the flash drive…I:\itunesflash\iTunes Media(I:\ represents the root of the network flash drive. (You can designate the flash drive as a network drive and assign a drive letter to it.)Then I moved my iTunes folders from my desktop hard drive into the I:\itunesflash\iTunes Media folder. So my folder arrangement looks like…I:\itunesflash\iTunes Media\Automatically Add to iTunesI:\itunesflash\iTunes Media\DownloadsI:\itunesflash\iTunes Media\iPod GamesI:\itunesflash\iTunes Media\MusicI:\itunesflash\iTunes Media\TV ShowsHence, all of my iTunes music now is physically stored on the network flash drive.You have to tell iTunes about this move, so…In iTunes do this… Edit->Preferences->Advanced. Then enter the new path in the iTunes Media folder location field.Mine looks like this…I:\itunesflash\iTunes MediaWith this arrangement, I can manage my iTunes music library mainly from my desktop and get access to it on the home network with the Yamaha receiver, PlayStation, Xbox…. So, what about playlists?In order to access playlists, I had to export each iTunes playlist one-at-a-time. I exported them to the following directory…I:\itunesflash\iTunes MediaIn iTunes, open your iTunes library. Select a playlist. Then do this File->Library->Export Playlist. Choose the *.m3u file type.Before you proceed to other playlists, open up the MusicCast app. Choose Server->YourLocalNetworkName->Music->Playlists. Check to see if your playlist shows up. If not, you might need to make some path adjustments so MusicCast can find your playlist on your network drive.If successful, then export all the playlists you want. The only thing is that you will need to export a playlist again if you make any changes to it in iTunes – or when you add new playlists in iTunes.As a result, and with the help of this fabulous Yamaha receiver, I have very successfully made the transition from an entirely wired home music system to a mostly wireless system (still have my Dual turntable connected). Now my principal Digital-to-audio-converter (DAC) resides in the receiver instead of the laptop or ipod. Music quality is stunningly improved. I now have greater access to my music from a variety of devices (Yamaha receiver, Playstation, Xbox) – and I have access instantly. I no longer need to turn on two computers in order to play my iTunes playlists through my receiver and vintage Advent loudspeakers.I hope this helps.